The potential of your business is in your partnering with others. There is a new wave breaking in industry and the nature of your relationships is the crest of it. Like everything else emerging, the spirit of your relating needs to be new.

Note that I chose the word ‘partnering’ rather than ‘partnerships’. The latter implies static structures, whereas the former is the present participle of a verb, which suggests fluidity. Partnering happens in the present. It is alive and dynamic. It is not something you put in place, it is a way of being in business.

This is the difference between the old and the new. The past was formal, institutionalised, systematised and slow. The present is flexible, organic and responsive. Everything now is instant, and, to deliver today, you need to be liberated from over-control and constraint.

Your intelligence needs to be functioning and flourishing, not substituted for by policies. Nothing institutionalised can be intelligent because by the time it has been written up and rolled out, it is out of date. Besides, telling people how to behave does not empower them. Thwarted and frustrated, they cannot thrive.

Similarly, your relationships need to be intelligent. Over-analysing jobs - which are evolving all the time - and imposing inhibiting structure in the name or Human Resource management just kills dynamism. Even employing people can be disempowering and counterproductive. Partnering is the way.

Small Business
I am a professional speaker, consulting entrepreneur, publisher and author. In effect, I have a number of businesses, as each endeavour is a free-standing unit united by an overall brand. Each business has a specific market, service and set of partners. In each area, I work with independent people in mutually beneficial relationships.

My team of partners are all innovators in their particular fields. They are all being themselves for a living, which is why we work well. We grow together. I have publicists, designers, editors, distributors, agents and accountants, all helping me make things happen in ways that suit us. I am also in joint ventures with other speakers and authors.

I deal with corporate partners, too, like printers, with whom I have close connections so that they understand and meet my needs to my high standards. My biggest corporate partners are my clients, with whom I work very closely. I do so not for money, but for personal fulfilment and their success. Money is part of that but not central.

In your own business, partnering is your power. It is your capacity to produce and stand out. A network of relationships with aligned associates is virtually impossible to replicate. It is priceless.

Big Business
My corporate clients who are most successful in a holistic sense are those who are partnering with their people. Their suppliers, service providers, customers and internal teams are all seen as their collaborators. A respect and interdependence prevails, which allows relationships to breathe and thrive.

People in the organisations are seen as entrepreneurs and managed as such. They, of course, give of their best on a continuous growth curve. They are rewarded with self-actualisation and prosperity, not paid to do what they do not want to. The big businesses are responsive and fluid, which means they survive and succeed in the true sense in these changing times.

People want to be themselves for a living, so shift into a partnering gear and feel your business burst forward.

Robin Wheeler is the author of the INSIGHTS series of books.

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